[Rarebooks] Isaiah Thomas printing of Abbe Millot's History, 1789, 5 vols.

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      [THOMAS, Isaiah, printer]  MILLOT, The Abbe (Claude Francois 
Xavier, 1726-1785).  Elements of General History.  Translated from the 
French of the Abbe Millot.  Part First.  Ancient History.  In Two 
Volumes.  [With:]  Part Second.  Modern History.  In Three Volumes.  
Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1789.
      First American edition.  Five 8vo volumes, uniformly bound in 
modern half light brown claf and marbled boards, red lettering labels 
on the spines.  xx, 563; xii, 571; xxii, 429; xiv, 518; x, 500 pp.  
Some occasional spotting to the title-pages, the title-pages to the 
first, third, fourth, and fifth volumes with a discrete repairs at the 
gutters, owner's bookplate on the pastedown of each volume..  A very 
good, clean set in modest but attractive bindings.
      Printed with typical elegance by Thomas.   The Abbe Millot's 
history, first translated into English in 1771, was considered 
influential enough by James Madison, Hugh Williamson and Thomas Mifflin 
to be recommended by those gentlemen for inclusion in the new Library 
of Congress on January 4, 1783--a recommendation that no doubt 
influenced Isaiah Thomas's American printing of the work.
      It is a history valuable for its breadth rather than depth: the 
Abbe's purpose was to provide the general reader and student with an 
overview of the vast expanse of history, so that the essential lessons 
could the more easily be drawn.  "History, when reduced to proper 
limits," he says in the Preface, "will not only prove a strong 
incentive to curiosity, but a source from whence the most valuable 
information, and even the principles of the most important knowledge 
may be obtained without much trouble."  A reviewer in 1812 noted that 
Millot had "succeeded so happily in the art of abridging" (The American 
Review of History and Politics, and General Repository of Literature 
and State Papers, Phila., 1812, volume 3, p. 25).  The last twenty 
pages of the last volume cover the entire history of ancient China, 
Japan, Persia, and the Moghul Empire.  Talk about abridgement!
      Interestingly, in 1771 three different English translations 
appeared, two by women.  It would be interesting to discover which of 
these Thomas used for this edition, but I haven't dug that deeply.  
$750

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